Blog posts from the staff of The Daily News & The Memphis News

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. has joined a letter written by the United States Conferences of Mayors and signed by a bipartisan group of 149 mayors from around the country urging Congress to deep-six the automatic budget cuts that go into effect at the end of this year.

Those cuts were part of a hard-fought agreement already reached by Congress. The letter tells Congress that if no action is taken, the cumulative effect of measures either being implemented or expiring at the end of the year would trigger $100 billion in spending cuts and $380 billion in tax increases.

Mayor Wharton and the other Mayors write:

“As elected leaders of local communities across the nation, we fully understand the need for fiscal responsibility and the tough choices that are required to achieve a balanced budget. We have also been forced to make challenging, even painful, cuts during this economic downturn. In the coming months, as you address both short- and long-term federal fiscal challenges, we urge you to adopt a bipartisan and balanced approach to deficit reduction by incorporating spending cuts with additional revenue from sources such as tax code reform and closing unfair corporate tax loopholes…We encourage you to work together to find a bipartisan and balanced solution to achieve deficit reduction that facilitates, not undermines, economic growth.”